Dare to imagine. Explorative scenarios for re-shaping human-nature relationships in an inner periphery in the Italian Apennines

The article investigates the relationship between planning and future by presenting and discussing the application of the scenario-making approach to an inner periphery in the Italian Northern Appennine, the semi-abandoned village of Ebbio, in the province of Piacenza. Inner peripheries are commonly described as the territories that have “no future”, namely those where the idea of the future is most problematic due to socio-economic decline, marginalization, and demographic shrinkage. In particular, we present two explorative scenarios and discuss them comparatively, looking at their space and time declinations, and their capacity to shape different patterns of human-nature relationships. The two scenarios imagine the case study transformed, respectively, into an “agroecological village” in which food is interpreted as a key component in the creation of a new local economy based on agroecological practices, and into a “wild village” with the invasion of nature in the village according to a “more-than-human” perspective. Results highlight the relevance that the scenarios’ reflexive and dialogic construction can have for exploring possibilities about the future that were not previously considered by local institutions and civil society. Moreover, the scenario-making approach proved a relevant means to guide local communities to change their relationship with and perception toward nature, passing from a traditional view of “dominance” over natural resources and habitats, toward more balanced patterns of coexistence shaped by reciprocal socio-ecological relations

HIV and the Law: Integrating Law, Policy, and Social Epidemiology

This article will consider first how laws in the United States could plausibly act as pathways, or mechanisms, by which deeper social determinants affect health, specifically HIV risk and resilience. Next, it will address the role of law in shaping those determinants themselves. For each example, we will ask the following questions: (1) how do law and policy link with risk; (2) what evidence supports this link; (3) what conclusions can we draw from the relationship between law/policy and risk; and (4) based on these conclusions, what policy options or research questions can we identify that will enhance the use of law/policy as a structural intervention. The article does not specifically address the role of law in HiV in the developing world, where the vast majority of the estimated 40 million people currently living with HIV reside

Characterization of multilayer stack parameters from X-ray reflectivity data using the PPM program: measurements and comparison with TEM results

Future hard (10 -100 keV) X-ray telescopes (SIMBOL-X, Con-X, HEXIT-SAT, XEUS) will implement focusing optics with multilayer coatings: in view of the production of these optics we are exploring several deposition techniques for the reflective coatings. In order to evaluate the achievable optical performance X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR) measurements are performed, which are powerful tools for the in-depth characterization of multilayer properties (roughness, thickness and density distribution). An exact extraction of the stack parameters is however difficult because the XRR scans depend on them in a complex way. The PPM code, developed at ERSF in the past years, is able to derive the layer-by-layer properties of multilayer structures from semi-automatic XRR scan fittings by means of a global minimization procedure in the parameters space. In this work we will present the PPM modeling of some multilayer stacks (Pt/C and Ni/C) deposited by simple e-beam evaporation. Moreover, in order to verify the predictions of PPM, the obtained results are compared with TEM profiles taken on the same set of samples. As we will show, PPM results are in good agreement with the TEM findings. In addition, we show that the accurate fitting returns a physically correct evaluation of the variation of layers thickness through the stack, whereas the thickness trend derived from TEM profiles can be altered by the superposition of roughness profiles in the sample image

The Polyakov action on the supertorus

A consistent method for obtaining a well-defined Polyakov action on the supertorus is presented. This method uses the covariantization of derivative operators and enables us to construct a Polyakov action which is globally defined.Comment: 15 pages LaTe

Induced quantum gravity on a Riemann Surface

Induced quantum gravity dynamics built over a Riemann surface is studied in arbitrary dimension. Local coordinates on the target space are given by means of the Laguerre-Forsyth construction. A simple model is proposed and pertubatively quantized. In doing so, the classical W-symmetry turns out to be preserved on-shell at any order of the $\hbar$ perturbative expansion. As a main result, due to quantum corrections, the target coordinates acquire a non-trivial character.Comment: LaTex, 32 pages, no figures, submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Incidencias de la dimensión histórica en la formación teológico-pastoral

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